Real-Life SpongeBob & Patrick Will Haunt Your Dreams

An artist has created haunting life-like renderings of animated TV stars SpongeBob SquarePants and his pal, Patrick. Created by Stephen Hillenburg in 1999, Nickelodon TV’s SpongeBob Squarepants has not only been one of the biggest hits for the studio, it’s made the likes of SpongeBob (voiced by Tom Kenny), Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke), Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence) and Squidward (Roger Bumpass) cultural icons.

Beyond the series, SpongeBob has made two big screen appearances with the hits The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004, and 2015’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water– showing that there’s plenty of life in the porous creature who lives in a pineapple under the sea. Sponge Out of Water marked a different turn for SpongeBob, of course, because it took the character and his friends out of the hand-drawn environment of the show and presented them as 3D computer-animated objects.

But now, 3D character artist student Miguel Vasquez is bringing the famed animated characters to life in a completely different manner, and the results are startling. Vasquez is displaying what he dubs “speed sculpts” of SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward at ArtStation. The photos of the Vasquez’s creation is stirring up some buzz online, with people sharing tweets featuring the artist’s work:

While guessing what your favorite animated characters would look like as human is a fun thought, there’s no question that the results Vasquez’s SpongeBob and Patrick human experiment is just downright creepy.

Of course, the pictures say it all, but if you had to best explain the human replications of the characters without any visual aids, the first three words should be “American Horror Story.” Squidward makes an appearance as well — albeit in the background — and while still creepy looking, Vasquez’s version of the character look for the most part like he does on the animated version of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Hopefully, the response to Vasquez’s life-like renderings of fan favorites like SpongeBob and Patrick (or will they be former favorites after seeing the photos?) will inspire the artist to create more renditions of animated icons in human form. While the possibilities are endless, let’s just start with the classics. Imagine how frightening, for example, a humanized Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd would be, or for that matter, Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck? Until Vasquez gets around to his next project, sleep tight, and try not to let SpongeBob and Patrick haunt your dreams.